Back in the 1920’s and 1930’s when H.P. Lovecraft wrote and sometimes published his novellas and short stories around the Cthulhu Mythos, he painted a picture of a stark, unforgiving, and uncaring universe in which, to quote The Call of Cthulhu:

[…] wherein our world and human race form transient incidents.

Our understanding of the universe has grown by several magnitudes in the now 80 years that have passed since his untimely demise. What our increased undertsnading of the cosmos has taught us is: Lovecraft was right.

The cosmos (of which there might actually be more than one) is unimaginably vast, so much so, there are parts of it, we will never see.

The size of what we can see is several times that what it was 10 years ago, thanks to technology, and the more we know, the vaster the universe becomes, the more we shrink in comparison.

We have also learned that down the ages 99% of all species that have ever lived on Earth have died out. It is only a matter of time until we, too, shall enter the long darkness of extinction.

So yes, we are nothing but a transient incident.

We are starring out into a vast, cold universe, occasionally lit by tiny islands of stars called galaxies but most of them we will never reach, if any at all.

Yet, we have gotten far and we must not forget that we are actually capable of starring into the abyss, up to the stars and into the vast, cold chasms of void between the stars, and to our knowledge, we are the only ones who do that. This should make us feel good and here, the way the Cthulhu Mythos has developed in the past 80 years comes to our aid.

Most people familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos today do not know the cosmic horror sleeping beneath the waves in his corpse city of R’lyeh, no, they think of things like this (please click):

Cthulhu is largely no longer a manifestation of supreme cosmic horror but rather something cuddly, funny and generally very lovable and this is also the way the indifference of the cosmos should be approached.

Since the universe does not care what we think about it, we are far too insignificant, living on a single rocky planet in the outskirts of an unremarkable galaxy and destined to go extinct eventually, we are free to think and act towards the universe any way we like – It does not make a difference!

The Cthulhu Mythos has become something coudly, so why should we not just give a long, good cuddle to the darkness? Maybe then the darkness gets a little warmer and more comfortable for everybody.

If we are destined to go extinct, why not make the best of the time we have and make it the best for everybody we meet? After all, everyone only gets this one shot of existing in the universe. And no, even if you believe in reincarnation, this does not change anything. Because this is still you and you only get one experience, even if it is spread out over several incarnations. It is still you and you should do your best to make this world a better place for everybody!

So, let’s follow the example the evolution of the Cthulhu Mythos in the past 80 years have set: Face the horrors of the cosmos, but give them a cuddle!